Call him “Steve Baller”—Ballmer buys NBA’s LA Clippers

We're now set for many years of terrible Clippy/Clippers jokes.

Steve Ballmer, former CEO of Microsoft, is officially the new owner of the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers, according to a league announcement.

The newly unemployed Ballmer has paid $2 billion for the team (which, as I understand it, plays a variant of the popular game netball). The price is a record sale for an NBA team.

Ballmer's efforts to buy the team have been delayed by a court case between the team's former owners, Donald Sterling and his estranged wife, Shelly. Donald Sterling attempted to block the sale negotiated by Shelly Sterling, but a California probate court allowed the sale to go through.

In picking up the Clippers, Ballmer joins Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen as an NBA owner. Allen bought the Portland Trail Blazers in 1988 for a mere $70 million.

We anticipate an abundance of terrible jokes alluding to the naming similarity between Ballmer's new toy and Microsoft's infamous paper-clip, and we would not be altogether surprised to see Ballmer standing courtside yelling "DEFENSE! DEFENSE! DEFENSE!"

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